Ice to Water

Who wouldn't want to play with ice and turn ice to water? One of our State Standards is "knows that matter exists in different states", and this is a fun way to explain this complex topic!

To build background knowledge, the students had a big bucket of ice in the water table to explore with during centers time. This allowed them to feel, smell, touch, explore the ice before we started the experiment.

I think this was a very important step to making this experiment successful, because the children knew what to expect from the ice.

Before we performed the experiment we created a chart called "Ways to melt ice".

Some great answers were:

- Squeeze it
- Blow on it
- Shake it
- Let it sit
- Throw it on the floor

I then gave each student an ice cube in a cup. They were told that they were supposed to find the fastest way to melt it.

They got really into the idea of changing a solid to a liquid. They were shaking, blowing, grabbing... it was a lot of fun!

When we were finished, we discussed what methods worked best. My class decided that squeezing the ice worked best... What did your class find?

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